wallisfrost
August 2020
In brief, The worst experience ever. We left after two nights despite booking for seven. Our son stayed the day and left immediately. Serious concerns especially with Coronavirus compliance. Sykes cottages and owners refuse any financial remuneration. We strongly advice accepting a full refund is on this property from Sykes while you can or rebook elsewhere. For those that want to read of our curtailed family holiday experience please read on.
On arrival we were greeted by the wife owner but immediately challenged at the gate about the third dog (a pug) we had with us. We explained it was on the booking confirmation and we had paid the £25 extra back in January when Sykes cottages had informed us of a conversation with the owner confirming acceptance of a third small dog. The owner denied any conversation with Sykes and stated “Sykes are awful, they do this all the time and I haven’t got the £25 they have”. This made us feel immediately uncomfortable as the owner stated that guests do “try it on & sneak extra people and dogs into the property”. We were offended and stated we are always compliant and would provide evidence of the booking to which she replied “no I believe you” but proceeded to expand on her own negative experience with Sykes cottages and previous guests. Very unprofessional.
The Garden cottage/4 bed barn is as you would expect rustic and quirky. I would challenge its 4* rating and give it 2-3*. Crockery is an eclectic mix of odds and ends but alarmingly has dirty, chipped & stained mugs. There is no dishwasher or washing machine. Electric cooker is old, slow and only just acceptably clean. Black mould sealant around kitchen sink area, tile grout missing in parts in kitchen & cobwebs on spot lights. We have photographic evidence of this which Sykes have not reacted to. When I raised this as a Covid concern to the owner I was told “no one else had complained”. There are mattress protectors on the beds but NO pillow protectors at all which again alarmed us with C19 risk. Yes you can take your own pillows but realistically for eight adults this is not practical for a five hour journey. On departure you leave all bed linen on the wooden floors, not in a linen bag, just on the floor, a serious C19 risk and in breach of UK & Welsh C19 legislation for future guests and cleaners. We would challenge the standard of cleanliness in this current C19 climate. Flys are abundant which we were told is normal on the farm but as we had no windows open and unsure how they were entering the property. There was a fly fluorescent zap device which was ineffective. We had to kill at least 40 flys per day. Totally unacceptable especially when they are constantly crawling on the kitchen table and within the kitchen area. One assumes that a full risk assessment and cleaning checklist is conducted & adhered to in compliance with the PASC (professional association of self caterers U.K.) & UK/Welsh regulations but there is no verbal or written evidence of this other than the blanket statement by the CEO on Sykes cottages website.
One basket of logs is provided free and a £5 fee is chargeable, as advertised, for a refill to heat the whole 4 bed cottage. With National overnight temperatures of 5 degrees Celsius (28/08/2020) and high Gail force winds everyone including our seven month old grandson slept poorly due to the cold. When I asked the owner about additional heating I was informed it wasn’t on as it is set to summer mode. After explaining the overnight temperatures it was reluctantly agreed that the heating would be set for four hours in the evening. Again I was informed “no one else had complained”. The owners do not listen to requests or questions from guests. They always reply with “No one else has complained” they clearly do not want to hear feedback. When the logs were delivered the husband challenged in an aggressive tone, “ can you tell me why you want more logs when your husband is walking round in shorts.” We were aghast at this statement and reiterated that it was the night time temperatures that were problematic not my husbands normal daytime attire. The owners reply was “you will soon be down to your pants as it’s so warm”. The same day we encountered the owner husband while walking our dogs on leads within the grounds. He was abusive, highly confrontational with unacceptable behaviour towards us. He stated “keep your dogs away from mine” and “we’ve reported you to Sykes”. We were left shocked by his outburst. We all just stood in shock with facial expressions that clearly showed our confusion to which we were berated with “don’t you look at me like that”. To avoid conflict with him I advised that we curtail our walk and return to the cottage. The owners had reported us to Sykes for allegedly leaving our dogs in the cottage unattended that evening and refusing to pay the £5 log refill and for bringing three dogs instead of two! This was all untrue and despite providing evidence of this to both Sykes and the owners we felt very uncomfortable with the escalating behaviour of the owners. At 2100 hrs on the Saturday evening the heating was not operational in one part of the cottage as the heating is dependent on two separate heating systems. On telephoning the couple they arrived and rectified the problem. When I thanked them I asked the wife why they were behaving in the unprofessional & threatening way they were to which the husband retorted “ you’ve got a seven night holiday for the price of three what’s your problem.” We were shocked by his unbelievable outburst again and stood silenced. Only when I replied that we had legitimately transferred our original Easter booking of three nights to this August week for the same price, why was that bothering him. He replied to his wife “leave it let’s go”. He gesticulated with his arms and they both retreated down the stairs. I informed them we would be leaving the next morning. This was so upsetting that I complied an email to Sykes that evening and sent it just before midnight. Never have we encountered such behaviour from holiday owners. We received a phone call from Sykes the next morning in response to the owners allegations. The call handler listened and agreed that the owners were new to Sykes and should not be behaving in the manner that they were and had requested they no longer engage in conversation with us and that Sykes deal with ongoing issues. I explained that we were all leaving that morning due to this terrible experience and would not be recommending the vacation. Sykes had already asked the owners for a financial refund to us without us requesting this as a matter of resolution but the owners had refused and stated we could remain for the week. Sykes will not enforce any refund as it is dependant on the owners decision not Sykes as they are a marketing company and not holiday owners. We should have accepted a full refund of the holiday when prompted two days before arrival.
I would not recommend Sykes cottages or Garden Cottage accommodation in Wales.